On the 8th of June, Alice Isibika successfully defended her thesis Use of pre-treatments and substrate blending to enhance process efficiency in black soldier fly larvae composting of food industry waste. External reviewer was Professor Sven Gjedde Sommer from Aarhus University (Denmark). The evaluation committee was Associate Professor Lara Maistrello from University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Area San Lazzaro (Italy), Dr Chrysantus Tanga from International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Kenya) and Docent Maria Westerholm from SLU here in Uppsala. The reserve in the committee was Docent Åke Nordberg from our own department. Alice got a lot of questions from both the opponent and the committee members, and the defense lasted from 1 pm till 4:30 pm. We think Alice did a great job and congratulate her on this achievement. We wish Alice the best of luck in her future endeavors, and hope that she will be able to apply what she studied in her thesis work also in practice when she returns home to Tanzania.
If you are interested in knowing more about how pre-treatment or substrate blending can make BSFL composting of fibrous waste substrates, contact Alice or Cecilia (cecilia.lalander@slu.se ).
Alice with her supervisors (Professor Björn Vinnerås, Associate Professor Cecilia Lalander, Professor Christian Zurbrügg and Dr Oscar Kibazohi), the opponent Sven Sommer and the evaluation committee after the defence.